{UK} Schools warned off Microsoft deal (BBC) {Holy crap, read the terms!}

[eppur_se_muova]

The UK computer agency Becta is advising schools not to sign licensing agreements with Microsoft because of alleged anti-competitive practices.
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It says talks with Microsoft have not resolved "fundamental concerns" about academic licensing and about Office 2007 and the Vista operating system.
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Becta's advice to schools considering moving to Microsoft's School Agreement subscription licensing model is that they should not do so.

It reminds schools they are legally obliged to have licensed software, but suggests they use instead what is known as "perpetual licensing".
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But a spokesman for Becta said the problem was that Microsoft required schools to have licences for every PC in a school that might use its software, whether they were actually doing so or running something else.
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more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/7063716.stm

Read further in the article to see that yes, they are considering open-source software.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

1. So lessee...

If a school has a computer lab full of Sun workstations and servers, they still have to buy M$ licenses for all of those Suns?

Man. It's as if the mafia protection scheme has been bumped to v2.0.

[hobbit709]

2. What you mean, "as if"?

[iconoclastic cat]

3. Use Ubuntu Linux! Open source, awesome support.

Just don't install the new Ubuntu 7.10 kernel yet. Too many bugs. 7.04 is great, and the next release will be what is called a "long term support" release, which means the focus will be on bug fixing instead of new features.

http://www.ubuntu.com

[eppur_se_muova]

4. Thanks for those details. nt

[dkofos]

5. I prefer Debian. It is much more stable than Ubuntu (which is based on Debian)

[iconoclastic cat]

6. I haven't actually tried Debian yet.

I'm pretty new to Linux. Does Debian have the same level of support? What do you like about it?

[dkofos]

9. It's free, It works, it's stable and when support is needed a quick ? to the forum

will be answered in minutes.
It can be set up with a net install CD (recommended if you have a high speed connection).
Can be set up with Gnome, KDE, or several other desktop managers.
Ubuntu is actually based on the latest version Debian Etch unstable (which is really pretty stable by M$ standards).
There are close to 18,000 software packages available for download and I haven't found one yet that didn't work.
I guess what I like best is the flexibility to install what I want, when I want it, and to know that it will ALWAYS WORK.

[iconoclastic cat]

10. Yeah, I checked it out a bit.

I might put it on my "scratch" hard drive and see how it performs.

[cuke]

7. Isn't that what MS got nailed for in the US?

They forced PC vendors to pay for licenses for Windows even the PC had a different OS, and the courts ruled that illegal, right?

[muriel_volestrangler]

8. Sounds like it; the Office of Fair Trading is the govt department for sorting this out

a referral to them is roughly the same as starting a court case in the US.

[Spike89]

11. Bad, but not evil

I have no stake in Microsoft, but I don't like arguments that don't put all the information out there for perspective. This is specifically for educational site licensing and although the details vary depending on the number of computers involved, the concept is basically, pay something like $20/computer for this software. So, if your school has 100 computers, it'll cost $2,000 whether you use it on 1 or 100. Of course, if your school is using it on only 1, the school can buy it just like any other product, at retail (say $200) and save big bucks. Of course, the license can also save big bucks if even only half the computers use it.

This is far from a Microsoft exclusive. Tons of site-ware is sold, especially to educational and non-profit organizations. It is sold that same way--a huge discount in exchange for a blanket license. Heck, even the OEM deals mentioned involved huge discounts. I also find it odd that in education, where Apple still has a significant presence, Microsoft bashers seem to forget that you can't even buy a new Macintosh without paying for OS X. (reminds me of protesters wearing Converse sneakers decrying Nike-wearers for supporting sweatshops and having no clue if Converse is better or worse).

I'm all for holding every corporation accountable for predatory practices, but geez this isn't as simplistically evil as the casual look at 1/2 the facts would suggest. Find out what that school pays per system before you decide if the practice is pure evil. The idea is that not having to worry about individual licenses is supposed to make it easier (and cheaper) for schools to be in compliance. I once had a job in IT for a mid-size (~100 employee) company, and I was responsible for tracking our software licenses--it was a time sink and the amount of money the company spent staying in compliance was considerable. The software vendors too spend lots of money enforcing and tracking this crap.